A Christmas (In July) Carol
by AgentMaryMargaretSkitz
Summary: After the Oculus explodes, Leonard Snart is catapulted into the Temporal Zone, fully aware of everything that is happening. He assumes that he had met his match, and that everyone will soon forget about him. The Time Force shows him that's not the case.


**So the whole month, I have been trying to write for the Captain Canary Christmas in July fest. I was struggling to think of something, and then saralxnces helped jog my brain juices to crank something out. I meant to post it on the 25th, but I wasn't done by then. So I've been scrambling ever since. And now of course on the last day I finally have it done.**

 **Pretty much going to be a fix-it. All of this was planned out before the news came out of Comic Con.**

 **Hope you enjoy all of this.**

* * *

The explosion at the Oculus didn't kill him. He didn't realize it though until he opened his eyes after feeling the nothingness around him. Somehow, he was in the temporal zone, floating around. He kept slipping in and out of consciousness, although he was never sure how long he was out for. The time on his watch hadn't changed from 8:15, so either the explosion had busted it or it was just perpetually 8:15 in the green vastness.

It was hard to distinguish when he was conscious and when he was out. No matter what state he was in, he always saw the shifted green energy around him. Leonard had tried to move his limbs, but they stayed frozen. There was no way for him to move at all. The circumstances were disorienting, agonizing, and lonely. It was like everything and everyone he knew was a thousand miles away from his mind no matter how hard he tried to think of them.

Sara had not been wrong at all.

It was Sara that he kept thinking of, as well as Mick and Lisa and all the other members of the team on the Waverider. He even missed Raymond, something he would never admit to the man's face. But everyone he had ever known was probably moving on from him. Rip did say that they were all insignificant to history. What had happened to him was probably how he became forgotten. This was his fate, being stuck here forever in the temporal zone.

"It doesn't have to be forever."

Leonard didn't know where the voice came from, or whether or not he was conscious. However, he immediately recognized the voice. Sensation returned to his body and he found himself able to look in the direction the voice had come from. He frowned at the sight of Rip Hunter, standing in the middle of the temporal zone as if it was no big deal. The next thing he knew, he was on solid ground, standing across from the Time Master in Central City. His situation had just gotten more puzzling.

"Rip?" he asked warily. "What exactly is going on here?"

Rip smiled and shook his head. "Afraid to disappoint you Leonard, but I'm not Rip Hunter. We simply chose this form from one of your last memories."

It was then that Leonard looked up at the sky, or what should have been the sky. Instead of blue, he was met with the temporal green swirls. The sight disappointed him. For a moment, he actually believed he was out of the temporal zone and back in Central City. He had been a fool for thinking it was that easy to get out. But his thoughts shifted to something "Rip" had said.

"What do you mean by we?" Leonard inquired. "Who exactly is 'we'?"

"We are everything," not-Rip said with a shrug. "We exist everywhere and in everyone. There are many forces in the universe, and we are one of them- the only one that exists in everyone. The Time Force."

"Time Force." It sounded a little sketchy to him, but he didn't have a whole lot else to go on right now. "So what, I'm stuck with you for all eternity? If that's the case, you could have chosen a person who doesn't annoy me every third time he opens his mouth."

Not-Rip (the Time Force, or whatever) chuckled. "No, Leonard. You aren't being held here. In fact, you're free to go whenever you want."

"And go back to a world where people have forgotten me by now?" Leonard scoffed. "Pass. There's not much of a point going back."

"You wouldn't count love? Family? Friendship?"

Leonard didn't have a response at first, not until the front he put up reminded him of who he was. "I don't deserve any of that. I was a criminal. Who cares what I feel?"

The Time Force shook its head before approaching to stand beside him. The streets he was standing beside vanished. Now, they were standing in his childhood home. His younger self and his father were in the same room, but they didn't seem to notice they were being watched. As he got a better look at the younger version, Leonard remembered the day he was witnessing. His father had recently returned from Iron Heights. He had been feeling sick all day, slowly coming down with a bug that had already made its way around his school. There had also been the constant remarks thrown his way about his father's new status as a former felon that he normally brushed off, but he had had enough that day. Lewis had wanted something (he couldn't remember what anymore), and Leonard had whined that he didn't feel good before letting it slip that he was getting made fun of.

As he watched the scene play out, Leonard flinched as he watched his father smack his younger self. Little Leo went spinning, holding his cheek and looking scared out of his mind.

"No one cares how you feel, son!" his father had shouted. "And you shouldn't either."

Younger Leonard ran off. The present Leonard didn't say anything as he watched himself race up the stairs. Time Force Rip looked over at him. His expression spoke of understanding.

"You made a promise to yourself that day not to care about anyone again."

Leonard was about to nod before he frowned. "How do you know-"

"We're the Time Force," it shrugged. "We see everything that ever happens. Every part of history, no matter how great or mundane, is witnessed by us. We know everything."

"If you've been watching my whole life, then you know that promise saved my ass plenty of times."

"But you broke it too.

The setting shifted in front of him again. Leonard watched himself, now a little older, with Lisa. He witnessed him helping raise her all over again from an outside perspective. All the things he had done for her, from making sure she was ready for school to taking blows from Lewis meant for her. Even the jobs that they'd pulled together. Everything he had ever done for Lisa, because she was his sister and he cared about her.

Then a new scene took shape, one where he wasn't present. It was Lisa in STAR Labs, talking to Team Flash.

" _He may be a jerk brother, but he's the only jerk brother I've got."_

Leonard didn't try to fight the small smile that crossed his lips when he heard that.

He turned to the Time Force. "She's my sister. She was family."

Time Force Rip gave a snort before STAR Labs changed into a very familiar juvenile detention center. A group of boys surrounded his small, scrawny fourteen year old self. Leonard could see the one with the shiv before a teenage Mick entered the scene. His friend stood up for him, and got him out of the mess before scenes started to flash past quickly. It was just like with Lisa, except it showed him with Mick this time. He watched the two of them grow up and age. All the jobs they pulled together. The long nights spent planning together. Every time he had gotten Mick out of a tough spot, and the times his friend had done the same for him. Everything that the two of them had been through, from the first meeting in juvie to him knocking Mick out so he would be the one holding down the failsafe at the Oculus.

As Mick fell to the platform, the surroundings changed into a familiar rooftop in Central City. Leonard found himself immediately spotting Sara Lance, who he now noticed looked somewhere between puzzled and not pleased. Then there was their first conversation on the Waverider, which Leonard smiled at again as it played before him again. There was St. Roch, with Captain and Tenille and Sara asking him to dance and getting into a bar fight with her and Mick. He saw Russia all over again, telling her she wasn't a killer anymore and stopping her from offing Stein. Star City 2046, when Deathstroke Jr. mentioned her as someone he wanted hunted down along with Rip. Leonard remembered how he hadn't given a damn about Rip, but Sara he did. The engine room, slowly freezing together while sharing stories. Every moment between him and Sara was being shown to him by the Time Force, from that first conversation to their final kiss at the Oculus.

"You thought you were incapable of love because of your father," Time Force Rip said as the last memory of Sara faded away back into the streets of Central City. "But you weren't, and aren't. You do care, Leonard. Not just about these three, but others, and you have an impact on them."

The Time Force had a point. But it was showing him the past. These were things that had already happened. It didn't dictate the present at all. Honestly, they were all probably fine.

"Maybe I do care," he admitted. "But everything will work out for them. They'll move on. Probably already have."

With that, he turned away from the Time Force and walked away.

* * *

He made it to a park nearby the police precinct. In the distance, he could spot the crappy diner that his grandfather used to take him and Lisa to. As he crossed the street, Leonard noticed the lack of people and traffic. There was no one else around him at all, and it was starting to feel unnerving and eerie. He didn't like the feeling at all.

"You know, you can't leave here," a familiar voice rumbled behind him.

Leonard stopped when he heard it and turned around. Behind him, standing by one of the park benches, was Mick.

"Mick?" he asked, slightly suspicious about his friend's presence.

Mick shook his head. "Sorry to disappoint. We thought another form would get through to you better."

"So you're the Time Force still," Leonard sighed and shook his head. "Look, I'm not the kind of person who likes dwelling on his past."

"We're aware," Time Force Mick nodded. "But don't you wonder about the people you left behind? How they're dealing with your loss?"

"They're fine. I'm sure of it."

The Time Force glared at him and shook his head. "How about taking a look for yourself instead?"

The park vanished around him, like the streets had done earlier when he was with the Time Force in Rip's form. Leonard now found himself in an apartment. It was sparsely furnished, but he could see someone sitting in a chair with their legs hanging off the side of it. It was Lisa, her shoulders sagging as she looked at something she was holding. Leonard stepped forward, but she didn't seem to notice. Then again, he was in the temporal zone, so he was probably watching her. He wasn't really there.

Peering over Lisa's shoulder, he saw that she was staring at a crinkled photograph of the two of them. He remembered it was taken shortly after he had gotten out of juvie again. He, Mick, and Lisa had gone to a carnival, and that Lisa had asked Mick to take the photo. As far as he knew, it was one of the few photographs of him that wasn't a mug shot or from a security camera. When he walked around to get a better look at Lisa, sadness was too evident on her face. She brought up a hand to her eyes, and Leonard found himself catching the date on her watch. It was his birthday, or would have been if he wasn't in here.

"She misses you," Time Force Mick told him. "You never even told her you were leaving to travel through time and space. It fell to your friends to tell her after they defeated Savage. And speaking of them…"

Now they were on the bridge of the Waverider, right in front of Rip's study. The Time Master was inside, as was Raymond. The two of them were arguing with a man Leonard didn't recognize. He was wearing a strange short of cloak, and appeared to be telling the other two something. Leonard stepped inside, curious to hear what it was.

"If we do this, people will most certainly die!" Rip retorted.

The man in the cloak didn't seem fazed by this at all. "It's a risk that needs to be taken to save the future. Doing so will wipe out a serious threat to the timeline."

"Along with a lot of innocent people," Ray snapped, glaring at the other man.

"They won't impact the timeline at all, Dr. Palmer. They had no significance whatsoever."

"Everyone has significance!" Rip shouted. "Have you even considered the families of these people, Mr. Tyler? Have you given any thought to their friends or anyone else who cares about them? Even if they do not have an important impact on the timeline, it doesn't mean that their deaths won't affect someone!"

Rip's outburst surprised him. The Rip Hunter he had known hadn't given any thought to collateral damage in his quest for vengeance against Savage. Now, it appeared that he gave a damn.

"So I suggest a new plan of action needs to be thought of," Rip finished, glaring at Tyler.

The new guy turned and left, nearly running into the real Mick on his way out. Leonard saw his friend seemed grimmer than the last time he had seen him. As he entered Rip's study, he took notice of the faces of the two men and sighed.

"Didn't go well with Tyler, huh?" he asked.

"Rex's plan is going to result in casualties," Ray told him. "Not just the threats we need to stop, but also innocent people."

"And Hoodie didn't buy the 'everyone's important' stuff?"

"Mr. Tyler seems to be determined to do whatever it takes to protect the timeline," Rip explained. "There was a time that I would have agreed with his plan."

"Before your wife and son," Ray finished, earning a nod from Rip. "And also before Snart too."

At the mention of his name, everyone's faces grew more solemn.

"Your death hit them hard," the Time Force manifestation of Mick told him. "Ray Palmer was the one who was supposed to die at the Oculus, not you. He feels it should have been him. Rip Hunter blames himself for being selfish to go on the crusade against Vandal Savage in the first place. And Mick Rory? You were his best friend. Practically a brother to the man who had no family left. Everyone aboard this ship who knew you is feeling your loss."

"What about Sara?"

Time Force Mick smiled, and the cargo hold replaced Rip's study. Sara was sorting through the crates down there with another woman who he had never seen before. From the conversation going on between them, Leonard gathered that Rip had asked them to find something for him. Sara turned to the new girl at one point, and he was able to see her face. He could tell that some of her walls had come back up. There was a more guarded look in her eyes, and less light in them as well.

The woman with Sara unlatched one crate, her brow furrowing. From it, she pulled out his cold gun. Leonard raised his eyebrows a little at the sight of it. He hadn't even thought of what would be happening to it after he left it with Mick. Sitting in Waverider storage was not was he expected though.

"What is this?" she asked, drawing Sara's attention to look up at what she was holding.

The assassin's face fell a little more as she drew closer to the gun. "It freezes stuff. It belonged to…someone important. A hero, really."

Her new friend nodded as she passed the gun over to Sara. "It belonged to someone who used to be on this team, didn't it?"

Sara pressed her lips together and nodded. "Yeah, it was Leonard's."

Leonard watched as she traced her finger along the barrel of the cold gun, lips twitching into a smile. "He told me that this was the second cold gun he had. The first was confiscated when he and Mick got arrested. The second one, he ended up kidnapped the engineer who made the first one so the guy could built another. Before we all met, Leonard used it in a lot of robberies."

"He was a crook then."

Sara smiled again. "He was one hell of a thief, Amaya."

"Sounds like you cared about him a lot," Amaya told her quietly.

"I did," Sara replied after a moment. "But I didn't tell him in time. Not in the way I wanted to at least."

She replaced the cold gun and shut the crate. "Now let's keep looking before Rip or Rex comes down and asks us why we're taking so long."

Leonard watched as the cargo hold and Sara dissolved into green mist. When it cleared, he was back in the park again with the Time Force. It seemed to be waiting for him to say something.

"They're still grieving," he muttered, although Lisa, Mick, Rip, and Sara's faces haunted him. He had created pain for them, pain he never intended to inflict.

"Your death still hangs over all of them," the Time Force stated. "Especially since Sara Lance. She learned her sister died when Rip Hunter brought them back to 2016. Ever since then, she has been under the belief that everyone she gets close to and cares about will get hurt, or die, because of her."

"I won't go back," he snapped, turning away. "Everyone will be fine without me."

* * *

"They won't be."

Leonard's breath caught more at the sound of the new voice than the words it said. When he turned back around, Sara was now standing where the Time Force had been a moment earlier in Mick's form. For a moment, there was pure blissful relief to see her again, right there in front of him. Then her eyes flashed green and Leonard remembered that it was the Time Force still. It wasn't really her.

"You really think that the world is better off without you?" she asked coldly, stepping toward him. "You're more important than you realize, Leonard. You are needed."

"Why? What happens if I don't go back?"

Time Force Sara reached out to take his hand. Above him, the green swirls of the temporal zone darkened into the grayish black clouds. When Leonard looked back down, he found himself to still be in the park. A layer of snow covered the ground now. All around him were bodies scattered about in red patches of the snow.

As he walked through the bodies, Time Force Sara followed after him. Oliver Queen, dressed in the Green Arrow suit, was lying in a pool of crimson, his own arrows sticking out of his body. Not far away from him were two other archers, both dressed in red. One of them, a man, was missing an arm. A cybernetic one was between him and the other archer, a young woman with short brown hair. Both of them looked like they had been beaten to death with the arm. A few more steps brought him to Barry Allen's body, his head twisted in a way that could have meant his neck had been snapped.

There were other bodies too. A man in a strange looking helmet. Cisco Ramon, wearing an odd pair of glasses. A kid wearing a suit like the Flash's, except it was yellow and red. Raymond. Jax and the professor. Rip Hunter. A young woman in yellow and black with a strange necklace. Mick. Lisa.

Sara.

Leonard approached her. The entire front of her White Canary suit was covered in blood. He could see the large wound that ripped across her front. It was a challenge for him not to gag at the sight of it as he gazed at the woman who had stolen his heart. She shouldn't be lying dead in the snow. None of these people, these heroes, should be dead.

"What happened here?" he asked, turning back to the Time Force.

"You didn't come back," Time Force Sara explained. "This is Christmas Day, 2018. A threat that had been thought to be defeated by the crew aboard the Waverider arrived in Central City. With you on the team, they would have defeated it the first time they crossed paths with it. Without you, it escapes and returns in 2018 to bring carnage. It is killed in the end, but the heroes of Star City and Central City lose their lives in the process."

Leonard turned to look back at the bodies around him. "And this is what happens if I stay forever here?"

"Yes, this will happen. But if you stay here, you will not last. Sooner or later, the Time Force will break down your body and your mind before absorbing it."

The thought didn't sound pleasant to Leonard as he tore his eyes away from Sara's still form.

"If you go back though," the Time Force continued. "This day will be very different."

The bodies and the snow surrounding them vanished and reformed into the living room of a fairly nice apartment. A small Christmas tree was in the corner with a few presents underneath it. Judging by the light streaming into the room, the sun had barely just come up. A door off to the side was partially cracked open. Leonard found himself stepping toward it.

"Go on," the Time Force encouraged before leading him into the room.

The bedroom they had just entered seemed to be simply furnished with a few personal touches. That wasn't what caught his attention though. In the bed, his future self was asleep beside a future Sara. Both of them looked so peaceful and happy and relaxed. Sara's head seemed to be resting on his arm, and some of her hair was in his face, but his future self didn't appear to mind at all.

"This apartment," he looked back to the Time Force. "It's ours?"

Time Force Sara nodded. "It is. What you see here is only a little bit of today, because a lot of good things happen on this day. Your future is bright if you go back, Leonard. There is still more for you."

His future self and Sara were now waking up slowly. Sleepy words were murmured between the two of them. She laughed at something that he said. Leonard smiled at them, feeling slightly jealous of his future self. But at the same time, he also remembered that he could have this. 'Me and you' could happen for him and Sara.

"So what do you say?" the Time Force asked as they returned back to the park. "Are you ready to go back?"

"In the future you showed me, the one where I'm back, are the people I know still alive? They won't die like they do if I don't come back?"

The Time Force manifestation of Sara nodded. "The people you know and love will live through this day instead of perishing on it."

"Good," Leonard nodded. "So how do I get back?"

Time Force Sara began to glow faintly. Her eyes were now completely green, with no trace of irises or pupils. She stretched out a hand to him, offering it to him to take it. Leonard complied, gripping her hand. A warm, buzzing energy filled his body as he did so.

"Think of home," Sara's voice echoed around him. "Think of where you want to go. "

He thought of Sara as the Time Force said this. Perhaps it was because of the form it had taken, but it was also something more. There was no doubt in his mind that he loved Sara Lance. She had helped him to see that he could become a better man, and that he did want to be more than just a thief. Sara had intrigued him from the start, and he wanted nothing more than to see her again.

"Maybe you'll be back in time for Christmas," the Time Force said before the light grew too bright, and he closed his eyes.

* * *

Sara felt a cold chill go down her back that wasn't from the wind, and immediately whirled around. The air was rippling with waves barely six feet from where she stood. The blonde assassin extended her batons and put them together to create her staff. She had no idea what was happening right now, but she'd learned a long time ago to be prepared for anything if something weird started happening.

A crack formed at the epicenter of the waves, shining with a blinding green light. It grew brighter and brighter until Sara had to throw up her arm to shield her eyes from it. A few seconds passed before it started to dim, and she lowered her arm. The ripples in the air were gone now, and in their place was a man lying on the ground. Sara inhaled sharply as she recognized him. Somehow, it was Leonard.

She stepped over slowly and knelt beside him. Leonard was slowly blinking his eyes open when she reached him. Sara knew immediately that this was actually him. He was really right there in front of her. She had spent mourning Laurel and him, believing he was gone forever. But now, here he was on the ground, looking dazed and very much alive.

"Leonard?"

He was slowly sitting up when she asked this. His head turned in her direction as he heard her voice, and a smile crossed his lips. There was so much relief in his eyes. "Sara."

"You died," she uttered, looking back up at the spot where the ripples had been before back at him.

"If memory serves me correctly, you died once too."

She smirked as she helped him up to his feet. He was a little off-balance, probably from wherever he had been. Other than that, he seemed perfectly fine.

"How long have I been gone?" he asked, staring around at the quiet street they were on as a cold wind blew past them, and his eyes caught the snow on the sides of the road. "Did it send me to Christmas?"

Sara frowned and shook her head. She couldn't fault his confusion too much with the weather around them in Australia. "No, it's July. But we're in Perth right now. And who's it?"

"The Time Force," Leonard replied with a small shake of his head. "It gave me the Christmas Carol treatment until I decided to come back to you."

"You wanted to come back to me?"

He nodded. "I did, but I had thought you'd moved past me. Thought everyone else had too. Then the Time Force showed you to me, showed me futures if I did and didn't come back. And then I realized how much I wanted to come back to you, and everyone else. Mostly to you though."

That was all Sara let him say before she leaned forward and kissed him. She had missed him so much in the months she had thought he was dead. Leonard had told her he wanted a future for them before the Oculus, and ever since then all the things she hadn't been able to say to him stuck with her. There had been nights when her grief for Laurel and him was so great that she would have done anything to get one of them back. Now that Leonard was back, she wasn't going to let anything hold her back. She had learned the hard way about letting the things she could do slip through her fingers.

"I think I liked that kiss better than the last one," she told him when they broke apart for air.

"Have to agree there," he chuckled. "God, I missed you, Sara."

The way he was looking at her, with relief and love and happiness in his eyes, made her wonder what he had seen when he was in the Time Force.

"You don't have miss me anymore," she said, smiling.

This time he was the one who leaned forward to kiss her again.

Perth always held a special place in their hearts from then on.

* * *

 **And there you have it. My Christmas in July fic.**

 **Please review?**


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